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Fremantle Markets
The Fremantle Markets buildings have been on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson Street since 1898. On that site previously were two houses providing accommodation for Instructing Warders and families as part of the Convict Establishment.
Posts from the Fremantle Society on the subject of the Fremantle Markets:
10 August 2023: Fremantle Markets to be given to Murdochs Again
14 July 2023: Very Urgent – Here is Help for Your Submission Due by 5pm
14 July 2023: Former MP for Fremantle, David Parker, says Fremantle Council "Incompetent." (youtube vid)
11 July 2023: Public Meeting about the Markets
9 July 2023: Two Key Pages on the Fremantle Markets
6 July 2023: Fremantle Markets
30 June 2023: Our Fremantle Markets – Time to Tender
16 June: 2023: Your Fremantle Markets – Time to Wake Up
4 June 2023: Annual Electors Meeting 6pm Tuesday
1 June 2023: Whistleblower makes shocking accusations
24 May 2023: Shoddy Business Plan for Markets should be withdrawn
22 May 2023: Fremantle Markets – another dismal "Business Plan"
17 May 2023: CAT bus linked to the issue of the Fremantle Markets lease: CATastrophic Council finances [1]
13 August 2020
Markets Madness
Did you know that Fremantle Markets, owned by council, is the Fremantle ratepayers’ biggest income earning asset, generating over $3 million a year?
Did you know that Brad Pettitt and 6 councillors gave the Markets to FMPL for 18 years in 2008 with no public tender process? Crs Lauder and Dowson voted against the controversial lease, and MP Adele Carles sought a government enquiry.
Did you know that of the $3 million generated each year, only 26% goes to council?
Did you know that the 2008 Conservation plan for the Markets said $4.5 million was needed to fix them up, but less than $1m has been spent in 12 years?
Did you know that the Markets now need at least $5.6 million in repairs, but council intends to give FMPL another long lease in a month’s time?
Did you know that if Council had run the Markets since 2008, they would have received over $30 million, enought to wipe out council’s massive current debt?
You can stop this madness by telling the mayor and councillors NOT to give another lease to FMPL and lose 74% of market income.
Email Fremantle councillors: members@fremantle.wa.gov.au.
John Dowson
President
0409223622
[[img/fighting.jpg|fighting]]
Story of the preservation of the Fremantle Markets, as told by Ron & Dianne Davidson in Fighting for Fremantle, in an excerpt from Chapter 4, 'The Battles Begin', pp. 39-40.
Despite these breakthroughs and despite their acceptance of the published ‘Fremantle: Guidelines for Development’ many Fremantle councillors were still unconvinced about Fremantle’s worth as a historic port city, and in 1974 Ken Bott was still pushing for the demolition of Fremantle Markets to make way for a set of traffic lights at the intersection of Henderson Street and South Terrace. The requirements of traffic flow would necessitate that the intersection be moved
page 40
southward, and the Markets building was the only one owned by the Council. This move was strongly opposed by Stan Parks and the Fremantle Society, who believed that the Markets should be restored and revived. Les remembers that he was about to leave for a meeting of the Interim National Estate Committee in Canberra, while Stan Parks was rushing through a plan for restoration of the Markets together with a request for Commonwealth funding. It was not ready by the time Les had to leave for the airport, and the Deputy City Manager ‘arrived panting at the airport just as I was about to board,’ carrying the completed submission.41 The funds were granted, the Markets were restored and there was a triumphant reopening in October 1975.
Endnote [in the book]
41 Les Lauder, interview with the authors, 25 February 2009.
References and Links
Davidson, Ron & Dianne 2010, Fighting for Fremantle: The Fremantle Society Story, Fremantle Society: 39-40.
Parker, David 2023, 'The Fremantle Markets saga: To tender or not to tender', FSN.
Parker, David 2023, Submission to FCC on the Fremantle Markets - as published in a Fremantle Society email.
14 July 2023:Former MP for Fremantle, David Parker, says Fremantle Council "Incompetent." (youtube vid)
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 18 May, 2018 and hosted at freotopia.org/society/campaign/markets.html (it was last updated on 14 January, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.